Alonso: Not a big fan of removing the tyre blankets

F1 is looking at banning the electrical blankets, teams use to pre-heat the tyres before bolting them on their cars, as another avenue to pursue towards a more sustainable future for the sport.

But the topic has been subject to much debate recently with a test conducted in Barcelona following the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix, and another one planned at Silverstone following the upcoming 2023 British Grand Prix, with Pirelli's head of motorsport Mario Isola admitting banning the blankets is not a done deal.

Over the course of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Fernando Alonso was asked about the potential ban of the blankets, especially that having raced in IndyCar, he could give some insight as the North American series does not use tyre blankets.

Alonso said: "I think it depends on the tyre energy that you put on that specific circuit. Barcelona will help the tyres, some others, it will make things very difficult.

"Indy, I think you put a lot of energy in the tyres immediately and it was fine. At places like Monaco, or some others... I'm not a big fan of removing the blankets, to be honest, and I don't see the reason why," he added.

Alonso was speaking in Friday's FIA hosted press conference in Montreal, where Charles Leclerc was also attending and asked about his opinion, especially that he has tested Pirelli's prototype tyres designed to work without the blanket.

Leclerc basically echoed Alonso's sentiments: " I think it's too early and I don't have all the answers for now. I have to say that in the conditions that I had during the test, it was good, and it went well.

"But in lower temperatures, I don't know," he added. "I haven't tested these tyres in lower temperatures and that's where the big question mark is. So, very difficult to answer whether I will be happy to go. I would like to maybe test those tyres in different conditions and then see whether they are raceable in all conditions. But again, it was a positive test with the conditions that we've had in Barcelona."

Pushed to explain, the Ferrari driver continued: "Well, you've got four or five corners where it's very tricky. Where the tyres need to get into temperature. When you are alone on track it is not that much of a problem.

"But of course, if you are racing other cars, then it becomes very, very difficult to manage. If it remains four or five corners, even in low conditions, then it's something that we could consider. But obviously with very low conditions, I expect this to be much longer, this warm-up period, and this then could become difficult," he maintained.

Former F1 driver, and Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle touched on the tyre blankets' topic in his latest column following the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend, where Qualifying took place in wet conditions.

Brundle wrote: "The Montreal circuit usually throws up some special challenges, not least because it's slippery, bumpy, fast in places, and lined with walls and high kerbs. And the weather can be challenging.

"A wet, albeit temporarily almost dry, qualifying served up some thrills and surprises for a nicely scrambled grid. There was a two-lap window to fit dry tyres in Q2 which the likes of Alex Albon in his Williams and a few of the other usual suspects anticipated well, but Sergio Perez in his Red Bull and Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari simply did not.

"It was a good reminder for those who want to stop tyre warmers and use F1 cars to heat them up instead, that such moments will disappear if they are banned," Brundle warned. "Nobody will venture out on cold slicks in anything like those conditions, and nor will they in a race either until it's certain they can stay on the track and generate heat rather than smash the cars to pieces.

"There are better ways to be environmentally friendly rather than fuelling an F1 car for a few extra laps to heat the tyres every run rather than directly applying a very efficient blanket system which heats specifically the tyre and wheel," the nine-time F1 podium sitter concluded.

Like Alonso and Leclerc, other F1 drivers are seemingly against the changes, with George Russell a Director of the Grand Prix Drivers association insisting banning the tyre blankets is dangerous, with teammate Lewis Hamilton agreeing.

Hamilton said: "I’ve tested the no blankets, and there is going to be an incident at some stage. So, I think it is the wrong decision."

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz agreed with Hamilton, he said: "I still don’t understand why F1 are moving away from blankets, because for me it makes no sense.

"You are burning more fuel, more tyres. Even on sustainability, I just don’t understand the philosophy. Also there are risks with these lower ride height cars," the Spaniard added.

And now several F1 team bosses seem to be skeptical about the possibility of banning the tyre blankets in 2024 with Mercedes and Ferrari conducting tests in Barcelona

James Allison, Mercedes' tech boss said: "I'd say that the early look at running without blankets, it's not exactly a done deal to think that that's going to be a good thing next year. I'd say there's plenty of challenge to make that work."

Williams boss James Vowles tried to be diplomatic about the matter; he told Motorsport.com: "My view is a very pragmatic one.

"Show us a tyre where you take the blankets off and it performs. And it performs whether it's Spa and five degrees or whether we're in Bahrain and 40 degrees, and happily I'll sign up to it because I think it's a good step.

"At the moment we haven't fully seen a tyre that’s capable of doing it. The test will help and give us another bullet point to it. Reading between the lines, I don't think we're quite there yet. But the direction of travel is good," Vowles concluded.

As for Alpine's Otmar Szafnauer, he believed the tyre blankets are part of F1's DNA; he said: We had a plan, run the tyres understand them and how good they are. Once that happens, I'm confident we'll make a good decision.

"It’s really hard to know, really hard to be able to answer. I think we have a pretty decent show now. And, yeah, there's all sorts of considerations with the tyres.

"There's other series that don't have tyre blankets, but there does come a time where that essence of F1, whatever that is, where maybe tyre blankets is part of it that we should keep," Szafnauer suggested.

However Red Bull boss Christian Horner reserved judgment until his team test the Pirelli prototypes after the British Grand Prix, with Daniel Ricciardo set to conduct the test.

Horner told Motorsport.com: "I think we'll reserve judgment until we've done a test. Daniel [Ricciardo] is going to drive the car at the test, and we will get the feedback from that running and then I'm sure Pirelli will make the right decision.

"I don't think it's what the drivers want," he pointed out. "But my fear with these things is that when you think you're going to achieve something simplistically that would create better racing, that there will then be a whole lot of effort go into trying to heat tyres very quickly, on out-laps and so on, that could drive a lot more cost in.

"Everybody has tyre blankets, they do the job. I think what we should be looking at is sustainable ways of powering those tyre blankets as opposed to removing them," Horner reckoned.